South Carolina: Two Women from Mental Health Facility Drown in Flood During Transport by Deputies

Two women being transported by sheriff’s deputies to a mental health facility drowned Tuesday in South Carolina when the van they were riding in was overcome by floodwaters. The two sheriff’s deputies in the vehicle survived.

Because, unlike the two women, the deputies had not been manacled and chained.

Forty-five-year-old Wendy Newton and 43-year-old Nicolette Green are two of at least 37 people killed by Hurricane Florence since the storm made landfall. Both women had gone to hospitals Tuesday morning when they were involuntarily committed and detained. Less than 24 hours later, they were dead. “There are a lot of questions remaining about why this had to occur, then, why there couldn’t have been some sort of an emergency delay”, says Meg Kinnard, South Carolina correspondent for the Associated Press, who has been following the story closely.

This 20 September 2018 video from the USA says about itself:

South Carolina Prisoners Were Left In Cells as Florence Descended. Why Weren’t They Evacuated?

South Carolina officials are coming under fire for refusing to relocate prisoners in mandatory evacuation zones even as Hurricane Florence barreled down on the state. Prisoners were instead put to work behind bars making sandbags to prepare for the storm’s arrival. We speak with Kymberly Smith, a community organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. She has been protesting South Carolina’s choice to not evacuate prisoners during Hurricane Florence.

THOUSANDS BRACE FOR MORE FLOODING AFTER HURRICANE FLORENCE About 6,000 to 8,000 residents in coastal areas in the Carolinas were warned Sunday that they may need to leave their homes because rivers are still rising more than a week after Hurricane Florence. In Washington, Congress is starting to consider almost $1.7 billion in new money to aid recovery efforts from the storm. [AP]

Two weeks after Hurricane Florence first made landfall on the North Carolina coast, its impact is still being felt throughout the region. The death toll now stands at 48 across the three states—North and South Carolina and Virginia—most directly affected by Florence, with 37 of those in North Carolina. The latest reported fatality was an 85-year-old North Carolina man who, while cleaning up storm debris, suffered an injury that later became infected, causing his death: here.

North Carolina is suffering a massive mosquito problem in the wake of Hurricane Florence.

5 thoughts on “Hurricane Florence in the USA update”

We’re writing to you from South Carolina, where Hurricane Florence’s record-breaking rainfall is causing flooding and isolating communities from aid. At least 37 people have died. Neighbors and strangers are rescuing and sheltering one another, doing all they can to pull through this tough time and keep spirits high.

Right now the most important thing we can do is to be there for our neighbors. Can you make a $5 contribution to the charities working to support hurricane and flood victims?

This current White House Administration has a disastrous record of helping people in need. Diverting nearly $10 million from FEMA to fund ICE throwing people in detention centers indefinitely was a moral and fiscal disaster, but our government did it at the beginning of hurricane season while neglecting problems in our communities.

In Lumberton, North Carolina, residents had not recovered from flooding that Hurricane Matthew caused in 2016 which displaced 1,500 people for months. Across the Carolinas and Virginia, toxic ponds of coal ash and animal waste are spilling over into rivers and groundwater, exacerbated by the flooding.

This isn’t new. In Texas after Hurricane Harvey, the Arkema chemical plant flooded and exploded, sending uncontrolled contaminants into the floodwaters.

Puerto Rico’s water supply was poisoned by sewage after Hurricane Maria, with Superfund sites, landfills, coal ash, and lead dust leaking carcinogens like tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene.

It’s clear that problems like the ones we are experiencing are the rule, not the exception, with the current state of our country’s infrastructure and energy consumption.

These are big problems we must confront together, but right now we need to focus on helping flood and hurricane victims in the Carolinas. Please make a contribution to these charitable organizations helping people on the ground.

These organizations are making a tremendous difference – thank you for pitching in.